Bluelight update: pilot test + departure
Well. Once again I don’t have Internet. But this time, I’m sitting on a plane back to the States. Lufthansa apparently now offers wi-fi on their flights. But let’s be real; as a graduate student, I’m at the bottom of the academic ecosystem: the vulture. The next time you attend a talk, look around and [...]
Bluelight update: What’s yo name? What’s yo numba? Networking to the max in Jordan!
Well. It’s just another day at the apartment with no Internet! Ack! As an MIT grad student, Internet is like the oxygen that I breathe. Without it, it’s hard to function! I feel like the only other people who would understand this are fellow tied-to-my-laptop MITers. In any case, the past ten days have been [...]
Marhaba from Bluelight in Jordan!
I have been very thankful to receive funding from the MIT IDI Technology Dissemination Fellowship. With their support, I am able to report live from our livingroom here in Amman. But first… introductions! My name is Hoda Eydgahi and I am a final year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science [...]
Azadpur Mandi- Delhi’s Wholesale Produce Market
Paul Artiuch and Sam Kornstein are graduate students at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Throughout the month of January researched market-oriented approaches to reducing agricultural food waste in India. BLOGGING FROM THE FIELD January 10, 2012 Soon after arriving in Delhi, we took a walk over to a local market and spoke with a [...]
A Small Charcoal Trial
Kevin, as a part of the Takachar team, visited Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya, with an interest in producing charcoal from organic waste. Kibera consumes hundreds of tons of charcoal per day, but unsustainable deforestation and increasing scarcity mean that charcoal is becoming more expensive. Over IAP, the Takachar team carried out interviews [...]
Staying Active: Boston to Yele
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELD February 11, 2012 The Spring semester has started here in Boston, but I still find myself thinking of Yele often. In an exciting recent development, one of our team members, Laila, moved to Sierra Leone to manage the project and be our eyes and ears on the ground. I debriefed her [...]
Beginning Essmart’s Inventory Experiment in Pollachi, Southern Tamil Nadu, India
Diana Jue traveled to India to implement Essmart. Essmart is an essential technology distributor with an in-store presence. Currently, essential technologies such as bicycle-powered machines, affordable solar lanterns, and smokeless cook stoves designed for the bottom of the pyramid are not well distributed. Essmart combines process innovations in product sourcing, distribution, marketing, and after-sales service [...]
Leading a workshop at SmallWorld
Deborah and Alorah Harman (2011, Course 1) took an early winter trip and traveled to Cambodia, partnering with the Harpswell Foundation, a women’s dormitory and leadership center located in Tuek Thla, Phnom Penh, to teach a series of workshops aimed at fostering creativity and innovation through engineering and leadership. By teaching some of Cambodia’s most [...]
Reflections on a summer spent designing wheelchairs in Guatemala
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELDJuly 29, 2011 Public Service Fellow Paul Lazarescu ’13 is working with Transitions Foundation in Antigua, Guatemala, helping to develop a hybrid wheelchair that can be used both for everyday and for active use. After spending almost a month and a half in Guatemala, I feel that we’ve accomplished a great deal. [...]
A portrait of production in Solo, Indonesia
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELDJuly 27, 2011 Graduate student and Public Service Intern Stephen Kennedy is working with an urban development and design non-profit Solo Kota Kita (Our City Solo). As you read this, some of you may be sporting a pair of fresh Nike kicks, tapping away on your Apple laptop, or consuming countless calories [...]
Installing a rain-water catchment system in Cambodia
Students in John Ochsendorf’s class, 4.472: D-Lab Schools, spent the fall 2010 planning to travel to rural Cambodia to work on school design projects. The class traveled over IAP, and a number of projects were undertaken, from installing new shutters to provide airflow during rainstorms, to building a latrine using rice husk ask (RHA) mixed [...]
[Wheelchair] Basketball diaries: Hugo Aquino, Dreammaker of Guatemala
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELD Third Blog- July 7, 2011 Public Service Fellow Paul Lazarescu ’13 is spending this summer working with Transitions Foundation in Antigua, Guatemala, helping to develop a hybrid wheelchair. Hugo Aquino is in charge of Transitions’ Foundation Workshop, which makes and modifies wheelchairs for disabled Guatemalans. Aquino is also the Captain of [...]
Sanergy 101: Sanergy team to improve sanitation centers in Nairobi
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELD July 5, 2011 Public Service Fellow Benji Moncivaiz ’11 is working in Nairobi with the Sanergy team, contributing to redesigning the sanitation center and co-directing the Nairobi fabrication and construction teams. Sanergy has now been firmly grasped by Nairobi and I am here to experience some of what it takes to [...]
MIT students running Costa Rica’s first ever science camp
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELD July 1, 2011: Out of the frying pan This last week has been one of the busiest times of my life (and that’s coming from a recent MIT grad!). Since our camps start in a few short days, this is crunch time and our preparation has been a bit of a [...]
Breakfast by boat in Banjarmasin, Indonesia
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELD Blog Post 02: June 30, 2011 On our first morning in Banjarmasin the Solo Kota Kita (SKK) team awoke for a 5:00 a.m. breakfast at the morning market. Our route, however, denied our land-locked sensibilities and instead took us on a waterborne journey through the city’s extensive river network, passing under [...]
Designing the perfect wheelchair
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELD Second blog- June 29, 2011 In this post Paul Lazarescu describes the process of designing a wheelchair to suit the rough roads of Antigua, Guatemala. Paul spending the summer in Antigua, working with the Transitions Foundation to design, develop, and test new wheelchair designs and accessories. Wheelchairs in Guatemala, Part II [...]
Costa Rican Culture 101
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELD June 23, 2011: Coffee, Sulfur, and Rrrrain Today’s post will involve some miscellany but I’ll tell you how the last couple days have been going (in no particular order). Volcanoes If there is one defining feature of the Costa Rican landscape, its the stretch of volcanoes that runs right down the [...]
Saba Mohsin ’11: Project Introduction
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELD June 21, 2011 Buenas. I’m writing from Costa Rica, where I’ve been for only two days but still have a lot to say about it. I’m here working with el Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia (MICIT) on a new project of theirs called Talento Joven (meaning “Young Talent”). The goal of [...]
Initial impressions of “Our City Solo”
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELD Blog post 01: Initial impressions of “Our City Solo”, June 9 2011 Stephen Kennedy signing on from Solo, Indonesia! I am Master of City Planning student in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies & Planning. This summer, I am embarking on my first trip to Indonesia with fellow classmate Alice Shay, where [...]
Sanergy: converting waste to electricity and fertilizer, one toilet at a time
Sanergy, a team of MIT students led by Ani Vallabhaneni (Sloan, ’11) and David Auerbach (Sloan, ’11), traveled to Nairobi, Kenya during the summer of 2010, IAP 2011, and summer 2011, through the PSC Grants program. Ani and David developed a business model where waste from toilets is collected and converted into fertilizer and electricity, [...]
A wheelchair for young people in Guatemala
BLOGGING FROM THE FIELD First blog- May 25, 2011 My name is Paul Lazarescu and I’ve just finished my sophomore year at MIT, where I study Mechanical Engineering. I’m spending this summer in Antigua, Guatemala, where I will be working with Transitions Foundation to design and manufacture a wheelchair for active users. During Wheelchair Design [...]
Blogging from the field
This summer, eight Public Service Fellows and Interns will be blogging about their public service project. Students will be working this summer in places such as Jakarta, Indonesia, Surrey, British Columbia in Canada, and in rural Uganda. A short description about the students’ projects is below. To read the blogs, click on the student bloggers [...]
Village-scale energy solutions
In 2005, the Solar Turbine Group, now known as STG International, won an IDEAS Competition award for their parabolic trough reflectors that provide clean and affordable energy to villages. Now, five years later, the team, led by Matthew Orosz MNG ’03, SM ’06, a doctoral student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, is thriving and was [...]
Indexing skills for disaster relief
In 2010, Konbit was awarded the $8,000 IDEAS Award sponsored by the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education. Team members Greg Elliott and Aaron Zinman designed a service via phone, Short Message Service (SMS), and web that helps communities rebuild themselves after a crisis by indexing the skill sets of local residents, and allowing [...]
